Help wanted: Must not be afraid of heights or confined spaces. The pay is good and the openings are sky high.

Delta College in Bay County's Frankenlust Township hopes to help fill a growing number of job openings in the wind industry through a technician training program now under development.

There are thousands of 300-foot-tall wind turbines going up across the United States, but not enough people trained to maintain them, said Steve Rosin, chair of Delta's Technical, Trades & Manufacturing Division.

Michigan has one commercial wind farm near Elkton, another going up near Ubly, and the potential for hundreds more turbines to meet a new state renewable energy standard.

"In the area of sustainability, alternative energy is a hot topic," Rosin said. "Wind is panning out as a distinct career path."

Rosin and two others in the division, Matthew Eyre and Mike Finelli, are putting together a wind tech training program and hope to begin enrolling students in fall 2009.

The new program would be tied to an existing program at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyo., although nothing's been finalized yet.

Rosin and Eyre spent a few days in September at Laramie. They met Mike Schmidt, program director for Laramie's wind energy technology program, in the summer at a week-long seminar in Oregon.

"Just from our group," of about 30 community colleges and wind turbine manufacturers, "there were about 1,300 job openings across the U.S. and 350 people being trained," Rosin recalled.

Schmidt said there are about 10 colleges in the country that train people to be wind techs through two-year programs.

"It's, at best, 25 percent of the need," he said.

Tom Bailey, production manager for Duke Energy, can attest to that.

Duke is a North Carolina-based electric utility that's getting into the wind business. The company is building two turbine parks in Texas and another in Wyoming, near Laramie.

Duke is installing Suzlon turbines, made by a company in India, and had to sign a 5-year contract with the manufacturer to maintain the 14 turbines at its Wyoming park. The company is working with Laramie officials, allowing students to train on the turbines.

"That's a two-year program and within two years, those guys will be graduating and we'll be able to hire some of them," Bailey said.

He said wind techs can make upwards of $38 an hour, with a 40-hour week and opportunities for overtime.

It's a lot like being a mechanic, except you're working about 300 feet in the air, secured with safety harnesses.

Typically, there's a need for one technician for every 10 wind turbines.

The American Wind Energy Association estimates that by 2030, up to 30,000 technicians may be needed to maintain the country's fleet, or 15 times the current number, based on federal projections.

Frontier Pro Services, a California company that services windmills, polled about 75 wind farm operators in the U.S. earlier this year and said in September that 60 percent of turbines may be behind on maintenance due to a lack of qualified technicians.

Even regular, scheduled maintenance like oil changes and gearbox lubrication is falling behind, resulting in downtime at production sites and costly equipment failures, Frontier representatives said.

There is no certification criteria for wind techs, but Laramie has developed its program with assistance from the Wind Energy Association and an industry advisory committee.

Laramie is in the first year of its program, and was expecting to sign up about 16 students. There are 23 enrolled, with plans to double the class size next year, Schmidt said.

"We've had well over 100 inquiries about the program," he said.

Laramie has a nacelle, or gear box, on campus that's mounted just a few feet off the ground, for students to train on before they tackle the real thing.

Delta hopes to have similar equipment in the future, and is talking with John Deere Wind Energy, which owns both of Michigan's commercial wind farms, about a field training component in Michigan's Thumb.

"The wind industry itself is very, very interested in developing the talent," Rosin said. Students in the Delta program will earn a two-year associate's degree in wind turbine technology, with an emphasis on electrical courses. Students would spend two summers, for three weeks each, at Laramie.

"We hope to be the first one in the state" with a wind tech training program, Eyre said.

Safety courses also will be an emphasis, Rosin said.

"Quite often, you go outside the nacelle and the winds are strong up there ... It's possible to get blown off," he said.

That's why techs are tied on with at least one of two safety cables at all times. They also tie on their tools, and work in groups of two.

"It's physically demanding," Rosin said.

Techs climb windmills on stairs located inside turbine towers; some newer towers also include lift systems.

Rosin said that until Michigan builds more windmills, techs trained at Delta would likely be working out of state.

"You need to be close to turbine farms," Eyre added.

"You could work locally or nationwide. The possibilities are endless."